


Wind in Stone

by SweetsThief (DarkMuffin)



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Angst?, Back at it again with gender neutral robin and their sad sweet thief bf, F/M, M/M, Multi, Never sure how to tag things, Other, Sad feelings honestly, Will I ever write Gaius happy who knows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-19
Updated: 2016-05-19
Packaged: 2018-06-05 06:00:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6692389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkMuffin/pseuds/SweetsThief
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For a statue, it sure speaks a lot, he muses. But it's not like the others, it holds his old self in it's cracked hands and smiles. There's a life pouring from it's mouth that never stopped flowing, though the river dried long ago.</p><p>Very angsty drabble ft a lot of flowery-ass language because I have fun trying to put emotions and descriptions of places into words and also breaking Gaius' heart, you're welcome.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wind in Stone

**Author's Note:**

> Actually started writing this while listening to "Okami Piano Arrangement - Kaguya's Journey" on youtube so if you want a bit of music to help set the mood ((or just some sweet piano music)), then I'd suggest playing it while reading since the first part of this is honestly just me trying to put a setting to the music and just sticking poor old Gaius in there for kicks.
> 
> Somebody stop me from writing every time I'm tired so we don't end up with this sappy writing again lmao

It was quite a beautiful place, he noted, lazily brushing at the few golden leaves that dared to touch his blazing red hair. Beautiful in sight, yes. But he couldn't stand the silence. There was something oddly comforting about it, yet it filled his ears, his mind, body and soul loudly, too loudly that he couldn't stand it. The silence screamed at him and he screamed back. It was always this way. Even in the rain it would be quiet, as though every drop of life feared disturbing such a tranquil place removed from time. He barely felt the water on his skin anymore, hasn't for years.

A sharp 'clack' stabs the air as he rolls the lollipop against worn teeth in thought. It rings on and on as he stands there, the statues beneath the tree mock him, they twist and writhe about as he stays one with the ground. He doesn't feel their scorching glares, nor hear their scathing whispers floating in the sea of silence brushing past his cheeks marred by timeless scars. In this place, he feels everything, and yet nothing at all. He can't bring himself to hate it.

He spits the poison from his mouth, the sweet snaps on the stone tiled ground etched with moss, blood, tears and deafening silence.

He's rotted enough on the inside.

There's a breeze, timid and shy that tugs at his cloak, wanting to dance, wanting to move. He steels his breath, and the wind waits. He can feel the ticking of seconds in his veins, in his stone heart. His eyes, dull jewels once sparkling free with life, now sadly reflect the soul looking back at him. For a statue, it sure speaks a lot, he muses. But it's not like the others, it holds his old self in it's cracked hands and smiles. There's a life pouring from it's mouth that never stopped flowing, though the river dried long ago. His skin aches to bathe in it once more, dragging his mind back with the wind to a time when it once could.

He opens his eyes.

He sees the book.

His fingers, light and soft as feathers tremble to touch the cover, its as priceless as a diamond and as fragile as glass, he knows. But the other soul says something he can't quite hear and his heart and hands become warm again, he opens the treasure slowly, carefully, silently. He marvels at the heartbeat echoed in the pages, at the rough and sloping paper singing a song of black ink and sleepless nights by candlelight. His eyes hold back the tears that hear the words upon words of pure emotion, emotion just for him. But he doesn't last, he'd given up hope for that a long time ago. He doesn't flinch as the soul slides closer and envelopes him, holding him as though he were the universe. Oh how he wishes to never leave this moment. How he wishes he could steal this time away as easy as his sweets, though he knows it a fools dream, but damned if he wasn't a fool for dreaming of this.

The wind picks up, dancing with him as he steps in time to the rhythm of his memories.

He stops, and finds himself in the tent with the unique smell only he knows. A smell of dust soaring from books snapped shut and wax burned down to the smallest inch, the faint scent of hidden sweets, stashed away for a rainy day. He feels at home here, he knows his home is here but he still walks away from it day after day. He shouldn't belong anyway, least of all in the tent sealed from time, with the smiling face that shines only for him.

_For him!_

And there they are, leaning on the old oak desk again, warm gaze hitting Gaius like a shot to the heart and he feels his voice slip away into the night air. Feels their hands against his, entwined in an endless embrace as the heartbeat drums away in his ears. Feels his breath leave his body, never to return as lips as soft as clouds brush his cheek, staining it brighter than any scar. He gives in to the waves crashing down around him, nothing could move him from this moment. At least, not the water.

The wind twirls again, sending him spinning and falling down into another dream.

This one was his favourite.

The sky was a swathe of deep sea blue, eagerly painting a picture of another world with stars splashed all over, comets streaking between the lines in reckless but beautiful abandon. The water of the puddles beneath his feet a smooth dark green, telling a tale of a forest that took pride in its untrodden paths, that sang beneath the sun and fell silent under the new world shining above.

And here he sat between three breathtaking worlds full of life and love and beauty. The sea, the sky, and them. The one who's laughter made the stars shake and chime like crystal bells. The one who moved closer and rose their hands and words up to the sky in excitement. He was glad they were breathless as he was, for once.

The laughter slowly swept away, taking him with it. They turned to him and whispered a secret that set his heart aflame. Hands moving without thought as they molded together beneath the blinded stars, and he sighed loudly, as every worry and demon within him were set free.

He was happy.

 _They_ were happy, with him.

And suddenly he's flying, skipping past memory after memory filled with warm and love. From the day they spent together tearing apart half the castle of Ylisse in their childish pranks and games, halls echoing their bright laughter for years to come. To the day he dreaded oh so much, a day he'd been working towards for moons, hands aching with the clang of each precise strike against metal as sparks danced up from the precious gems that held all the world in them and more. When the sun finally took its rest behind the towering mountains above the camp, his shadow drifted across the earth to settle upon a smooth stone by a shimmering lake of stars. 

They were already waiting for him, of course.

He tries, oh how Gaius tries so hard to remember the next few moments, but he's overwhelmed by it all. He's lost in the tidal wave of searing hot words and raw feelings flowing from _their_ mouth and his hands shake and rattle until the ring falls from his pocket and then its silent. Dead silent. He's never wanted to be pulled into the thin veil of painful emptiness behind a sword's sharp edge more so then right then and there. The stars shimmer and shake with him, the gods must be enjoying his suffering, he muses, dread seizing his voice and soul.

But then there's warm hands on his own and a ring on the other's finger that blinds him, it's so bright with his soul carved into it. They inch closer, he swears their souls could reach out and pull the other in at a moment's notice, and then he finally, _finally_ can hear them through the howling wind and he damn near falls to the ground crying out his heart to the world.

**"I love you, Gaius."**

He's crying, screaming through the wind and holding on for dear life telling them no, no they're wrong. That he loves them and he doesn't want to go, please no, _please._ But the wind is clawing at him now, raking his sides in dark agonising streaks and he feels his grip on them fading, fading fast and hes slipping away again into the wind feeling everything and nothing all at once as he cries.

He stops.

He's back.

His legs ache, he hasn't moved in a long time. The sun is setting already, bathing everything around him in a quiet murmuring blue. The statues have stopped their slithering, they no longer sneer at him in disgust, only pity. He'd laugh if he could. He feels emptier than usual, as though the air sucked out his soul and mind, spiriting it away with his hope. The tears freeze on his burning cheeks, but he's fine, he whispers, _just fine_.

He thinks he's had enough for one day, he muses half-heatedly, and pulls the warm flowers from his pockets and they light up the darkness brighter than any sun to him. He lets out a breath he'd been holding for months as the flowers settle beneath the statue, whom smiles back up at him as horribly cheerful and happy to see him as always. They're Daffodils, he says with an rehearsed smirk, figured you'd get a kick out of them yeah? And his smirk falters just a fraction. You were always going on about flowers and what they meant, too bad an idiot like me didn't get it half the time huh? And his fingers cling to the battered and bruised Gardenia in his hand, pressed lovingly with time and care by another's hands.

As he turns to leave, he flashes a trademark smile at the statue, and he swears he could see the stone tactician's cloak move as the other laughs from somewhere just out of reach. It makes him feel just that little bit lighter, and the wind nearly whisks him away again. But he turns his back to them and strolls away through the thin darkness veiling him now, whispering under his breath with words that hang below the statue for eternity.

_**"I love you, Bubbles."** _

**Author's Note:**

> For those of you wondering about the flower stuff; One of the meanings of a Daffodil is 'eternal life' which is ironic when the one you're giving to is kind of 6ft under, while Gardenia's can symbolism purity and sweetness, which probably made Gaius cry and laugh at the same time when Robin gave it to them, whoops. 
> 
> In other news Fates is finally arriving in Australia this week which is nice, I'm not sure if I'll get as attached to the characters in it as much as I did with Awakening, but who knows.
> 
> This story is such a downer but man I hope someone gets a kick out of it at least, also felt a lot longer writing it out lmao.


End file.
